Splume

Posted by BMcC Sun, 28 Oct 2007 08:47:00 GMT

Content Directors for this year’s IGF, Steve Swink and Matthew Wegner (a.k.a. Flashbang Studios), have recently released a quirky, physics-based puzzle game called Splume, made in only four short weeks as part of a new development path experiment they’re conducting. In Splume you shoot balls that attach to other balls… and… wait, why am I describing this when you could simply watch the video, or, in just a few more mouse clicks, play the game? Here’s what’s important: It’s fun and polished and free.

So apparently Flashbang will continue releasing compact games like this for some months, then decide which games are the best to flesh out into “full” versions. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Splume has an online scoretable, level editor, and live feed of recent play history across the galaxy. Check it out. And enjoy.

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Comments

  1. BMcC said 8 minutes later:

    Gotta love the little eyeballs. :)

  2. Space Ranger. said 34 minutes later:

    Looks really well made :)

  3. SEH said 35 minutes later:

    Hey, that music was by I, Cactus. Oh wait, it says that at the end.

    It’s like Bust-a-Move, but more … bubbly?

  4. BMcC said 37 minutes later:

    More physicsy. More eyebally.

  5. Neon said about 2 hours later:

    <3 physics. Well done art, very good sound simple addicting gameplay. Love it keep it up.

  6. colorFool said about 2 hours later:

    Cute! And such nice music too!

  7. Bob said about 4 hours later:

    Like we need another Bust-a-Move clone with good graphics.

  8. Sayonara said about 4 hours later:

    Like we need another human being called Bob with good graphics.

  9. Horst said about 5 hours later:

    Nobody’s going to say it? Fine: It’s like Snood on crack! Or maybe just ecstasy and some mild barbiturates.

  10. raelz said about 5 hours later:

    i got some weird bug there - i can shoot one ball and then it kinda freezes :(

  11. glorb said about 6 hours later:

    boooorrrrring

  12. flue said about 7 hours later:

    Horst: Snood is just another Bust-A-Move clone, which plenty of people mentioned already …

    Splume was nice.

  13. raelz said about 8 hours later:

    Its pretty ok game (yeah, I finally made it to run ok :P), the system that is used is nice (the thingy you have to download), the ideas are a little original, but nothing excellent. They have chosen the wrong game mechanic if they wanted to make somehow interesting game..

  14. Matthew said about 8 hours later:

    Hey Guys,

    Regarding the originality–Splume was our first real web game with Unity, so we deliberately picked an established concept. This allowed us to focus on the technical pipeline rather than the design challenges of a new concept.

    We have some more basic concepts coming up to test other features in the engine, but before too long we’ll be trying more experimental ideas. Stay tuned!

  15. Bob said about 12 hours later:

    Phew. Before your comment, I thought that you were just like PopCap.

  16. Advenith said about 12 hours later:

    Bust a Move was one of my favorite games.

    …Was.

  17. Kale said about 17 hours later:

    Snood, like so many other rip-offs of Puzzle Bobble didn’t add anything to the game. I was furious when I found a GBA copy of Snood on shelves.

    Splume actually adds enough to be considered a different game. The level to which the physics and size/shapes make a difference sets it apart almost as much as Magical Drop is from Puzzle Bobble.

    Where I fear you may have trouble is in capturing the kind of twitch gameplay that most really good (competitive) puzzle games have with such a physics driven game. I find that with most games that involve physics, unless it is a VERY real world scenario, you only KIND OF know what the outcome will be.

    That said, I am excited to see where it goes. I can see the 2-player mode being pretty fun co-op. I would be interested to see levels where each player would have a different set of colors that they cycled through, forcing them to really communicate if they wanted to get combos. ;D

  18. Moose said 2 days later:

    Wants me to download an unknown web browser plug in with no pedigree. Sorry :(

  19. Steve Swink said 2 days later:

    Moose: It’s the Unity player - www.unity3d.com. Not sure what your definition of ‘pedigree’ is but Unity is a great company and there’s no malware or toolbars or anything like that attached. Basically like downloading the Flash plugin. Their web player is nice, fairly robust, and does sweet 3d stuff.

  20. BMcC said 2 days later:

    Yeah, Moose, don’t be a sissy. :D

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